Mongo Beti Bibliography Examples

The Library, Documentation and Information Department of the ASC has compiled a dossier about the Cameroonian writer Mongo Beti, who died in October 2001. The dossier consists of an introduction on the man and his work, a list of publications by and about Mongo Beti, and a selection of Web resources. All titles listed - both fiction and non-fiction - can be found in the ASC library. The library catalogue contains abstracts of most of the (non-fiction) works. For information about this dossier and availability of titles email us at: asclibrary@ascleiden.nl or phone: +31 (0)71 527 3354.

Introduction

Mongo Beti, one of the foremost writers of Africa's independence generation, started his career as a writer in 1953 with the publication of the short story 'Sans haine et sans amour'. His first novel 'Ville cruelle' followed a year later in 1954. Both works were published under the assumed name of Eza Boto. Two years later came 'Le pauvre Christ de Bomba' under the pseudonym Mongo Beti. Under this name he built up an impressive œuvre, culminating in 2000 with 'Branle-bas en noir et blanc'.

Mongo Beti was born as Alexandre Biyidi (or Biyidi-Awala) in 1932 in a village south of Yaounde. He left to study in France in 1951 and soon became caught up in Parisian African politics. He denounced colonization and the effects it had on traditional societies. After finishing his studies, he went back to Cameroon in 1959 where he became involved in the independence movement. He ended up in jail and returned to France to become a literature teacher in Rouen. In 1978, with his French wife Odile Tobner, also a literary teacher, he launched 'Peuples noirs, peuples africains', a bimonthly review magazine. In the early 1990s, amid the wave of democracy sweeping Africa he returned to Cameroon and started a bookshop. Beti remained deeply involved in politics for the rest of his life.

Mongo Beti's novelistic œuvre can be divided into three distinct periods. During the first, from 1953 to 1958, he produced a short story and four novels, all concerned with the problems of colonialism. The short story, entitled 'Sans haine et sans amour', was published in a special issue of Présence Africaine, 'Les étudiants noirs parlent'. It is an attack on Camara Laye's idealistic view of the African child. 'Ville cruelle' describes how poor Africans were cheated by colonial officials. 'Le pauvre Christ de Bomba' (1956) is a humorous and devastating critique of missionary life in Africa. After 'Mission terminée'(1957) and 'Le roi miraculé' (1958), Beti's reputation as a writer was firmly established. A common aim in all these novels is to subvert colonial rhetoric in order to convince readers to reject the colonial situation.

After a period of silence lasting fourteen years during which Cameroon gained independence, the first two of his five novels about neo-colonialism were published. In 'Perpétue et l'habitude du malheur' (1974), a political prisoner reflects on the death of his younger sister during his detention. 'Remember Ruben' (1974) takes place just prior to independence and describes in the form of an odyssey the development of a young orphan up to the time when he joins the military. 'La ruine presque cocasse d'un polichinelle', published in 1978, is the sequel to 'Remember Ruben'. This trilogy is based on Ruben Um Nyobé, (1913-1958), a trade-union leader who was killed by the French army and the novels provide a counter-history of the decolonization process; an alternative to the optimistic accounts of the nation-building process. 'Les deux mères de Guillaume Ismaël Dzewatama' (1983) describes the return to Cameroon, with his second, French wife, of an intellectual after studying abroad, and 'La revanche de Guillaume Ismaël Dzewatama' (1984) is a sequel to this story of the Dzewatama family. The major point the author wants to make here is that Africa is imprisoned in a neo-colonial situation characterized by a close collaboration between an indigenous elite and foreign interests.

Back in Cameroon Beti published three more novels: 'L'histoire du fou' (1994) is a chronicle of 30 years of dictatorship, while 'Trop de soleil tue l'amour' (1999) is about a journalist in the run up to elections. His final novel 'Branle-bas en noir et blanc' was published in 2000.

Beti's commitment to his homeland is even more apparent in his non-literary work. 'Main basse sur le Cameroon: Autopsie d'une décolonisation' (1971) is a devastating critique of Ahidjo's authoritarian regime in Cameroon, while 'Lettre ouverte aux Camerounais, ou, La deuxième mort de Ruben Um Nyobe' (1986) was directed against Ahidjo's successor, Paul Biya. In reaction to the image of 'blacks' in Western discourse, Beti and his wife produced the 'Dictionnaire de la négritude' (1987). In 'La France contre l'Afrique: Retour au Cameroun' (1993) he accuses France of being too closely associated with dictators, out of self-interest.

With Beti's death, Cameroon loses a man who used his novels as a weapon in the struggle against the colonial and neo-colonial political and economic system that condemns most Cameroonians to a life of poverty and feelings of inadequacy.

Selected web resources

(The ASC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites)

Reading women writers and African literatures: Cameroon Contains information on Cameroonian literature and on Cameroon in general; maintained by the Department of French Studies, University of Western Australia.http://aflit.arts.uwa.edu.au/CountryCameroonEN.html

Peuples Noirs, Peuples Africains The first five issues of Peuples Noirs, Peuples Africains were made available online in April 2003; subsequent issues will be added to the site at the rate of one per month. Contains biobibliographical information. Contact: Jean-Marie Volet, University of Western Australiahttp://mongobeti.arts.uwa.edu.au/

Mots Pluriels, no. 6, 1998 Revue électronique de lettres à caractère international. This issue contains an article by Théophile Bissohong on football as metaphor in two novels by Mongo Beti.http://motspluriels.arts.uwa.edu.au/MP698tb.html

Mongo Beti, also called Eza Boto, pseudonyms of Alexandre Biyidi-Awala, (born June 30, 1932, Mbalmayo, Cameroon—died October 8, 2001, Douala), Cameroonian novelist and political essayist.

A member of the Beti people, he wrote his books in French. An essential theme of Beti’s early novels, which advocate the removal of all vestiges of colonialism, is the basic conflict of traditional modes of African society with the system of colonial rule. His first important novel, Le Pauvre Christ de Bomba (1956; The Poor Christ of Bomba), satirizes the destructive influence of French Catholic missionary activities in Cameroon. It was followed by Mission terminée (1957; also published as Mission to Kala and Mission Accomplished), which attacks French colonial policy through a young man who, upon returning to his village with some hesitation because he has failed his college examinations, discovers himself to be not only revered by the villagers for his achievements but also alienated from their way of life.

After publishing another novel, Beti stopped writing for more than a decade. When he resumed, his criticism focused on the colonial characteristics of Africa’s postindependence regimes. Main basse sur le Cameroun (1972; “Rape of Cameroon”), a book explaining the emplacement of a neocolonial regime in his homeland, was immediately banned in France and in Cameroon. Two years later he published the novels Perpétue et l’habitude du malheur (1974; Perpetua and the Habit of Unhappiness) and Remember Ruben (1974). Perpetua is a mystery story of the murder of a promising young woman by the combined forces of backward traditions and neocolonial evils. Remember Ruben and its sequel, La Ruine presque cocasse d’un polichinelle (1979; “The Nearly Comical Ruin of a Puppet”), chronicle the fortunes of several revolutionaries who fight against and defeat a French-backed regime in their newly independent country. Some of Beti’s later novels, including Les Deux Mères de Guillaume Ismaël Dzewatama, futur camionneur (1983; “The Two Mothers of Guillaume Ismaël Dzewatama, Future Truckdriver”), concern interracial marriage. Among his other works are La France contre l’Afrique (1993; “France Against Africa”), a discussion of the French African policy, and the novel Trop de soleil tue l’amour (1999; “Too Much Sun Kills Love”).

In 1978 Beti launched Peuples Noirs/Peuples Africains (“Black Peoples/African Peoples”), a political and cultural bimonthly periodical devoted to the exposure and defeat of neocolonialism in Africa. An outspoken opponent of Ahmadou Ahidjo, who governed Cameroon from 1960 to 1982, Beti settled in France before Cameroon achieved independence in 1960; he returned to his native country in the early 1990s. Most of his books were originally banned in his native country.